Tag: harp

Meet the Lineup of This Year’s Edition of Fort Worth’s FWAAMFest

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

The fourth annual edition of the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (AKA FWAAMFest) will take place this weekend, on Saturday, March 16, at Southside Preservation Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. BGS has been proud to support and sponsor this quickly up-and-coming event over the past few years and 2024’s edition of the all-day festival will be the biggest FWAAMFest yet.

The festival has a mission of centering the vital and transformative contributions of Black and African-American folks to American roots music. Though their purview at first glance may seem “niche,” this is a concept that is as broad and expansive as it is pointed and specific. Festival organizer, Decolonizing the Music Room founding director Brandi Waller-Pace – a regular contributor to and collaborator of BGS – goes out of her way each year to demonstrate Black music, Black artists, and Black stories are not monoliths. Each year’s lineup is carefully curated to show FWAAMFest audience members the depth and breadth of Black musical traditions, not only in Fort Worth but around the country.

Tickets for the event are competitively priced ($50 general admission, $30 for students, with discounts for educators and children) and are truly an excellent value. Where else under one roof can you enjoy workshops, partake in Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship, dine on excellent barbeque and soul food, and hear sets from Jerron Paxton, Lizzie No, Crys Matthews, Joy Clark, Jontavious Willis, Corey Harris, Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo, Spice Cake Blues, Lilli Lewis, EJ Mathews, Stephanie Anne Johnson, Patrice Strahan, and Darcy Ford-James?

Below, take some time to familiarize yourself with this year’s FWAAMFest lineup while you make your plans to join Fort Worth at Southside Preservation hall this Saturday for an incomparable day filled with music, history, fellowship, and community building.

Jerron Paxton

Well known to BGS, Jerron Paxton – who you may know as “Blind Boy” Paxton – is a blues, old-time, and ragtime musician adept on many instruments, from piano to banjo to harmonica and beyond. Paxton was on BGS’s Shout & Shine Online lineup in 2020, a virtual showcase also curated by Brandi Waller-Pace. We’ve spoken to Paxton a few times about his incredible, timeless sound – and how he doesn’t view his music as coming from the past, but being rooted in the present. With his material and storytelling, he demonstrates how all of these American roots genres are so closely intertwined.

Lizzie No

Lizzie No’s new album, Halfsies, is certainly one of the best releases of the year. An Americana and country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, No has a perspective that’s effortlessly modern while steeped in country traditions of the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. There’s introspective indie touches, pop infusions, and an end result that’s truly singular. Her music has plenty to sink your teeth into, and we go back to it time and time again.

Check out a recent GOOD COUNTRY feature about feminine country that highlights No and Halfsies and take some time to discover why our co-founder, Ed Helms, highly recommends her music via Ed’s Picks. Oh, and did we mention No co-hosts a BGS podcast, Basic Folk, too? An entire multi-hyphenate, right here!

Corey Harris

Corey Harris is a blues musician who has busked the streets of New Orleans, lived in Cameroon and West Africa, collaborated with Taj Mahal, and garnered millions of streams. His is an old-fashioned sound, but without essentialism or facing backwards. The lead single and title track from his upcoming album, Chicken Man, is out now – watch for the full record later this month. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, don’t miss your opportunity to see this world-traveling blues picker and singer in Fort Worth.

Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo

Valerie and Benedict Turner are Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo, inductees of the New York Blues Hall of Fame. They’re committed to bringing “awareness to these unique aspects of African-American culture,” especially Piedmont style fingerpicking, washboard, and what they (rightly) call “country blues.” They’ve traveled all around the world playing Piedmont blues and they’re especially adept at preserving songs and sounds from artists like Mississippi John Hurt, Etta Baker, and Libba Cotten while showing how important their music is in modern contexts – in the present moment.

Crys Matthews

Singer-songwriter-picker Crys Matthews is another FWAAMFest 2024 artist that’s a well known name to BGS readers. An activist in songwriter form, Matthews writes pointed, sharp, and compassionate protest music that’s never saccharine or blinders-on, a rare feat in folk music. She also has a guitar playing style all her own – playing left handed, with the guitar upside down, she also reminds of musicians like Elizabeth Cotten. But still, what listeners take away from her joyful and encouraging sets, filled to bursting with solidarity, is an understanding that what Matthews does with her music is an art form all her own. Check out a BGS fan favorite from 2023, Matthews’ collaboration with Heather Mae and Melody Walker on a rousing community-minded number, “Room.”

Jontavious Willis

Grammy nominee Jontavious Willis was born and raised in rural Georgia and his childhood was filled with gospel music and connections to deep cultural traditions. As a teenager, he discovered Muddy Waters and the blues; it wasn’t long ’til he was sharing stages with Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, and so many of his heroes and forebears. (Mahal called him “Wonderboy,” a certainly fitting and worthy title!) Willis makes music with a huge scope and limitless lifespan, but in that same DIY, hard-scrabble, down to earth way so highly valued in the blues. In 2018, he won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge Award for Best Self-Produced CD, and his 2019 follow up, Spectacular Class, garnered his Grammy nomination and millions of streams on digital platforms.

Joy Clark

Guitarist Joy Clark is rapidly on the rise – and deservedly so! She tours and performs with the Black Opry Revue, with Allison Russell’s Rainbow Coalition, and as an incredibly accomplished solo picker-singer-songwriter. Just last month, she wowed the Folk Alliance International audience at the International Folk Music Awards with her tribute to Tracy Chapman, showing the intuitive and intentional connections between Clark and queer, Black guitarists, musicians, and songwriters who came before her. The most remarkable thing about Clark’s music, though, is not that it reminds of other musicians and artists – even when it does. Instead, it’s impossible to deny that Clark has a voice on the guitar that is all her own and she’s on a steady march to bring that voice to the world. Thank goodness!

Spice Cake Blues

FWAAMFest has it all, from internationally known artists to insider favorites to gem-like discoveries, like duo Spice Cake Blues. A new introduction to BGS and our readers, Spice Cake features Miles Spicer and Jael Patterson and they are based out of Maryland. Spicer is a co-founder of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation and an accomplished Piedmont (and multi-style) guitar picker. Jael, who also goes by Yaya, is a powerful and soulful singer. Spicer also performs with Jackie Merritt and Resa Gibbs in the M.S.G. Acoustic Blues Trio. (M.S.G. = Merritt, Spicer, Gibbs.)

Lilli Lewis

You may know her as “Folk Rock Diva,” Lilli Lewis is a powerhouse vocalist, pianist, songwriter, former record label runner, and forever community builder. Her shows are entrancing, like a combination of Wednesday-night church and a New Orleans Saturday night. Lewis is prolific and critically-acclaimed, and something of a genre and context shapeshifter, unifying the many sounds and styles she inhabits with her heartfelt stories and encouraging words of insight. Her latest album, All is Forgiven, was released in December 2023. Don’t miss her cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” though, too – there’s a reason it’s so often requested at her concerts!

EJ Mathews

EJ Mathews was born and raised in Atlanta… Texas. A small town near the Arkansas border, Mathews grew up listening to the music of his grandpa – an even mix of country and blues. As such, his sound infuses as much modern blues as country, southern rock, and gospel, with infinite feel and groove. His 2020 single, “Smokin’ & Drankin'” shows so many of the styles he effortlessly combines. Now living in Dallas, Mathews will make the relatively short hike over to Fort Worth for FWAAMFest to bring his unique, melting-pot sound to Southside Preservation Hall.

Stephanie Anne Johnson

Stephanie Anne Johnson is a singer-songwriter and radio host based in the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Tacoma, they were already becoming a common sight in folk and Americana circles when they seemingly burst onto the national scene appearing on season five of NBC’s The Voice. Johnson is another FWAAMFest artist who was featured on the Shout & Shine Online lineup in 2020 curated by Waller-Pace. Criminally underrated in national folk, Americana, and indie circles, Johnson creates powerful music that brings love, mental health, togetherness, and redemption all under a compassionate lens – and with a remarkably grounded sensibility. Whether solo or with their band, the HiDogs, Stephanie Anne Johnson is an entrancing musician and songwriter. Don’t miss their 2023 album, Jewels.

You can see all these artists and so much more this weekend at FWAAMFest in Fort Worth! Get your tickets now.

Photos courtesy of FWAAMFest. L to R: Crys Matthews; Jerron Paxton; Lizzie No. 

WATCH: Larry & Joe, “Linda Barinas”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Larry & Joe
Hometown: Durham, North Carolina
Song: “Linda Barinas”

In Their Words: “’Linda Barinas’ is a song so well known that most Venezuelans can sing along.

“Eladio Ramón Tarife composed ‘Linda Barinas’ to honor his homeland, Barinas. It’s part of the Llano region and where this style of music, llanera, originated.

“The typical música llanera rendition would include harp, cuatro, maracas, bass and vocals, which makes our harp and banjo version quite unorthodox. Nonetheless, many Venezuelan traditional musicians have taken note of how seamlessly the five-string banjo melds with their instrumentation.

“Though Venezuela and Appalachia are thousands of miles apart, our folk traditions aren’t so different, and the sounds of our strings come together like old friends. Who would’ve thought?” – Joe Troop

Photo Credit: Billie Wheeler

WATCH: Sukhmani, Ajeet, and Aisling Urwin, “Ash + Bone”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Sukhmani, Ajeet, and Aisling Urwin
Hometowns: Washington, D.C.(Sukhmani); Dublin, Ireland (Ajeet, Aisling Urwin)
Song: “Ash + Bone”
Release Date: July 16, 2021
Label: Spirit Voyage Records

In Their Words: “Working on ‘Ash + Bone’ was such a deep, immersive experience, and it remains one of the most special songs I’ve had the pleasure to work on. When Ajeet approached me to sing and play percussion on the song, it felt right to build the groove organically, in a way that would allow me to perform the lyrics and percussion simultaneously in a live environment. The calabash seemed like the perfect choice, and when paired with the harp, guitar and bass, a fun, rich, unique soundscape was formed!

“The song is inspired by the types of friendships that empower and embolden you to live your truth, and I feel as though the music reflects this so perfectly. The three-part harmony in the verses feels like a beautiful nod to the mutual support of these relationships, and the way our voices weave together in the canon of the chorus makes the lyrics feel like an affirmation, echoing on. I feel so honoured to have been a part of this project, and am in total awe of Ajeet’s production, and the magic brought by everyone else involved in its creation.” — Sukhmani

(Read more from the band below the video.)

“This was an incredibly special song for us to record, as it was born from friendship in a time of isolation and reflection for us all. We made a video performance for social media, spliced together with the three of us separated by oceans and many miles. I think we mostly made it to keep our own spirits up, and to have some fun playing music with our friends…something we’ll never take for granted again!! We were delighted to find that the song caught on, and other people had as much fun listening to it as we had making it. It’s celebratory, free, raw and organic. We left the live feeling in the recording, and I just love the feeling it gets across. I’d love to see all musical projects I’m part of carry such a feeling of fun and exploration like this one did.” — Ajeet

“‘Ash + Bone’ was a really fun one for me from an instrumental perspective. I wanted to experiment with the harp and try to create some new sounds and textures. I took inspiration from the sounds of the kora and had a lot of fun layering polyphonic riffs. And then to combine this with Sukhmani’s beats was a real treat. This biggest treat of all is to make music and sing with these amazing women. There’s nothing like collaboration to broaden the realms of your own creativity.” — Aisling Urwin

Photo Credit: Spirit Voyage

5 Uncommon Trad Instruments Played Like You’ve Never Heard

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

We’re all familiar with the standard bluegrass five-piece band (also a common lineup in old-time or string band music), but there are quite a few second- and third-string instruments — no pun intended — that are rarely invited to join ensembles of guitar, fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, and banjo. Dobro is perhaps first on this short list, but accordion, dulcimer (hammered and mountain), autoharp, washboard, harmonica and dozens of other music and noisemakers could be encountered alongside these acoustic staples.

The five musicians below are awe-inspiringly adept at their instruments, each considered more like afterthoughts or casual embellishments in American roots music, rarely considered centerpieces themselves. But no matter how uncommon they may be at your local jam circle, or around the fire at the campsite, after you’ve been introduced to each of the following, you’ll be craving more unexpected and uncommon sounds in your bluegrass lineups.

From bones to nyckelharpa to Irish harp, here are five uncommon traditional instruments played like you’ve never heard them before:

Simon Chrisman – Hammered Dulcimer

A familiar, towering figure in the West Coast old-time, folk, and DIY roots music scenes, Simon Chrisman is criminally underappreciated on a national or international level. He most recently released a duo album with acclaimed banjoist Wes Corbett, he has been touring and collaborating with the Jeremy Kittel Band, and he’s performed and recorded with the Bee Eaters, Bruce Molsky, Laurie Lewis, and many others. His hammered dulcimer chops exist on a plane above and beyond even the most accomplished players on the trapezoidal instrument, throwing in pop and bebop-inspired runs, reaching down to bend strings by hand to achieve particular semi-tones, bouncing along at a rate only matched by a three-finger banjo player’s rapid-fire sixteenth notes. It’s jaw-dropping, even in Chrisman’s most simple, tender melodies and compositions. This rollicking number, named for Corbett’s beloved cat, is neither simple nor overtly tender, but your jaw will find the floor nonetheless.

Rowan Corbett – Bones

Rowan Corbett is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and percussionist best known for his time with seminal modern Black string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Also a longtime member of Baltimore-based acoustic-grunge/world-folk group ilyAIMY and a veteran of Celtic outfit Tinsmith, Corbett is something of a musical chameleon, though it never feels as if he’s just putting on genre costumes to match whatever melodic motif suits the moment. Instead he inhabits each one authentically and wholly. ilyAIMY, for being billed as a folk band, are captivating, passionate, and energetic, perhaps most of all while Corbett fronts the group. But all of his musical moxie across all of his instruments pales when he pulls out the bones — traditional, handheld percussion instruments similar to their more mainstream (if not more vilified) counterpart, the spoons.

It’s no wonder a bio for Corbett begins, “What are those and how does he do that?” Corbett’s percussion skills are precise and technical, laser-like accuracy meshed with generation-blurring soul. During a guest appearance with Rhiannon Giddens at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, in September 2019, Corbett brought thousands of listeners gathered on the hillside by the amphitheatre to their feet with his bones and just a couple of bars. This improv/battle video with Greg Adams displays just a taste of Corbett’s prowess on the ancient instrument.

Amy Hakanson – Nyckelharpa

Pandemic aside, if you’ve jammed with an old-time fiddler in the past two years you’ve probably fumbled (if you’re like this writer) or charmingly tripped your way through a Swedish fiddle tune or two. Musicians like Brittany Haas and Molly Tuttle have brought Swedish tunes into their repertoires, birthing dozens of new acolytes of the crooked, wonky, joyful tunes. Many an American fan of Swedish folk traditions were introduced to them by Väsen, a genre-blending, nearly 30-year-old Swedish folk band adored by multiple generations of American musicians, thanks to their status as a favorite band of everyone’s favorite pickers. (Väsen counts Chris Thile, Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, and others among their most vocal proponents and collaborators.)

Nyckelharpa player and scholar Amy Hakanson was first introduced to the instrument by Väsen as well and in 2014 she took her fascination with the heady, engaging music to the source, to study nyckelharpa with Väsen’s Olov Johansson himself at the Eric Sahlström Institute in Tobo, Sweden. Her approach to the instrument — a traditional Swedish, bowed fiddle-like apparatus played with keys — has a storied, timeless air, even as she carefully places the nyckelharpa in modern contexts. This original, “Spiralpolska,” for instance, utilizes a loop machine, ancient droning and modern droning combined.

Sarah Kate Morgan – Mountain Dulcimer

The mountain dulcimer is simple and beautiful in its most common use, a gentle, pedalling rhythm section for languid, introspective folk tunes. Counterintuitively much more common in the hallways and hotel rooms of Folk Alliance International’s conference than IBMA’s or SPGBMA’s gatherings, this writer first encountered Kentuckian Sarah Kate Morgan and her melodic-style dulcimer among the many booths of IBMA’s World of Bluegrass exhibit hall. She was holding her own in an impromptu fiddle jam with mandolins, fiddles, banjos — all instruments much more familiar with picking intricate, free flowing hornpipes and hoedowns. But Morgan doesn’t just strum the dulcimer, capitalizing on its resonant sustain and open tuning, she shreds it. Playing a finely-tuned, impeccably intonated instrument with a radiused fretboard, she courageously and daringly dialogues with whomever accompanies her down every bluegrass and old-time rabbit hole she meets. It’s incredible to watch, not only with the understanding that most mountain dulcimers are treated as an aesthetic afterthought, but also knowing that Morgan’s prowess outpaces just about anybody on any instrument. A truly transcendent musician.

Alannah Thornburgh – Harp

Harp keeps coming up lately! And for good reason. No matter the genre label applied, harp is having a moment. We’ve kept up with Alannah Thornburgh for a few years, featuring her work with Alfi as well as across-the-pond collaborations like this one, with mandolinist (and BGS contributor) Tristan Scroggins. Living in Dublin, Thornburgh plays in the Irish harp tradition, but has toured and traveled extensively in the United States, giving her style a distinctly old-time and fiddle-tune-influenced approach. She takes on the complicated, contextual vocabularies of American old-time music with ease, almost leading listeners to believe that emulating the banjo or mandolin or executing new acoustic compositions or modern reharmonizations of old-time classics is what the harp was designed to do.

An Instagram video of Thornburgh displays a mischievous, winking arrangement of Béla Fleck’s “The over Grown Waltz,” from one of his masterworks, The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2. An earworm of a tune well-worn and familiar to any acoustic music fan Generation X and younger, it’s not uncommonly called at some jams, but its hummable melody is secretly, deceptively, subversively complicated. Once again, Thornburgh simply smiles and pushes onward, as if reaching and pulling these intricate licks and banjo phrases seemingly out of thin air on a harp were as everyday an activity as brushing one’s teeth — or a wedding performance of Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

 

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Photo credit: Alannah Thornburgh (left) by Tara McAuley; Amy Hakanson by Amy Hakanson.

Maeve Gilchrist, “The Storm” and “The Calm”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

If you aren’t already aware, you should know that the harp is having something of “a moment.” Between pop- and mainstream-adjacent singer-songwriters like Joanna Newsom and Lizzie No who write on harp to traditionalist, Irish and old-time pickers like Alannah Thornburgh, there’s no shortage of non-classical entry points to this often esoteric instrument. Viral TikTok sensations @hannah_harpist and @olivia_harpist (Hannah Stater and Olivia Ter Berg, respectively), whose harp-centered “sounds” have been liked, shared, and reshared by hundreds of thousands of users, are true harp influencers, capitalizing on the growing visibility of the instrument.

Lifelong harpist, singer, composer, and virtuoso Maeve Gilchrist — whose own journey on the instrument began as a child at the feet of her two harpist aunts — knows that this global harp moment is no flash in the pan. She’s performed around the world with DuoDuo, the Silkroad Ensemble, notable instrumentalists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Darol Anger, and Esperanza Spalding, and she was even a featured soloist on the How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World soundtrack.  

Gilchrist’s just-released album of harp compositions, The Harpweaver — named for and inspired by the eponymous work by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay — includes two compositions written for a community school of 107 young harp students in County Laois, Ireland. “The Storm” and “The Calm” were written as part of a suite entitled “White Horses,” which Gilchrist wrote for a harp orchestra of young County Laois girls ages 5 to 18. A native of Scotland and now based in Brooklyn, New York, Gilchrist teaches often in Ireland and the British Isles, building upon the instrument’s deep roots in the folk and Celtic musics of the region. 

“Back in the days,” Gilchrist explains via email, “when a lot of Irish music and culture was being oppressed, the harp was outlawed because of its ability to so powerfully stir the spirit.” In teaching these young girls the harp, Gilchrist is handing down the legacy of its evocative ability to subvert these sorts of moral expectations – especially those projected upon women. “I loved the image of white horses (the waves of the sea) as a metaphor for these girls,” she continues. “So strong and elegant, wielding their harps as modern day peaceful warriors!”

On The Harpweaver, “The Calm” comes after the storm, turning the age-old cliché on its head, further subverting our expectations for an instrument and a genre aesthetic that has too long been relegated to quiet background music in elevators and office spaces. The harp is a tool for so much more, and on The Harpweaver, Gilchrist’s compositions, as well as her efforts to spread the harp to new pupils, acolytes, and fans, demonstrate this clearly, stunningly, and captivatingly. 

Photo credit: J. Goodman

BGS Launches Shout & Shine Video Series with Black Harpist & Songwriter Lizzie No

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Like many of us, Lizzie No is weary of quarantine. Yet as the New York City musician and harpist joins BGS on the phone to talk about her life in pandemic isolation, her songwriting, her creative processes, and the growing pains intrinsic to all of the above, the joy in her voice cracks through the fatigued outer layers we all wear right now. A Black creator in traditionally white genres, No brings a distinct and important perspective to help guide longtime BGS column Shout & Shine into a new era.

In 2017, Shout & Shine began as an interview series dedicated to exploring identity, advocacy, and marginalization, along with the ways these paradigms filter into music and art, especially of roots varieties. Taking today’s civil unrest and righteous rebellions into account, we’ve purposefully refocused this column’s mission with the hope of giving a platform to Black musicians in roots music specifically, because these spaces too often relegate Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian voices to the sidelines.

Now, in addition to interviews and an upcoming podcast, BGS is proud to announce Shout & Shine will be moving to video! Lizzie No is our debut guest for the livestream version of Shout & Shine, which comprises short-form, intimate video performances by underrepresented and marginalized artists in Americana, folk, and bluegrass.

Lizzie No’s Shout & Shine set, presented by Preston Thompson Guitars, will feature a brand new song, “Mourning Dove Waltz,” and will be streamed live on BGS, our YouTube channel, and Facebook page on August 5 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. In the meantime, read a little more about No’s songwriting, her approach to roots-driven harp, and her thoughts on tokenism — and why white folks perhaps shouldn’t feel free to lead that kind of conversation.

Editor’s Note: You can watch Lizzie No’s Shout & Shine performance in full below:

BGS: I wanted to start — and this is a little selfish — with “Mourning Dove Waltz,” because I’m an avid birdwatcher and in shelter-in-place everyone is watching birds! This song is not only about quarantine, but also the idea of being in an old space, but with new intention. Can you tell us a little bit about that song, through the lens of isolation, and creativity in isolation?

Lizzie No: That’s a brand new song and I think you can tell I wrote it during quarantine. I was never terribly interested in birds before March of this year. My mom always loved and delighted in them and I always thought it was very cute, but they never captured my attention. Right as we were truly locked down here in New York and a lot of people were making the decision to try to go somewhere else, it felt like there weren’t any rules anymore. I decided to stay here in my apartment and I ended up having so many hours, especially first thing in the morning, where I would just sit and try to make the day’s activities stretch out over the longest period of time possible so I wouldn’t go insane. 

That’s when I started to notice a couple of Mourning Doves had nested in my plant boxes on my balcony. It felt miraculous to get to watch them every single day through the balcony door. [They] laid two eggs, we watched them hatch, we posted about them on Instagram, we took name suggestions. It was this unfolding thing I didn’t think I cared about until I had this uninterrupted time where I didn’t need to be doing anything other than staying calm. I was pretty much on these birds’ schedule. I noticed when they took their breaks in the middle of the day and when mom and dad would switch places. Of course, this is so cheesy, but I felt a real loss when the babies grew up and flew away. As a songwriter, it led me to thinking about losing people. About losing a sense of connection. That’s what led to that song. 

The harp is one of my favorite instruments, but through no fault of its own — besides maybe its complexity — it’s not common in roots genres. How did you find it, and how did you infuse it into your songwriting and artistry?

After giving up on violin as a kid [Laughs] I thought harp was one of the biggest and weirdest and coolest-looking instruments. I took lessons for all of elementary, middle, and high schools and then I hit the point in high school where friends were starting bands and I wanted to be part of it. I wanted to be able to sing and play and strum along while singing, but I didn’t play guitar and I didn’t play piano; I played harp. Basically the harp just had to catch up with my evolving interests in the Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlile. That’s where I was at when I was 16. 

I didn’t really see any examples of people who were doing that — though now I know that there are. I think I saw videos of people like Joanna Newsom and Edmar Castañeda, people who weren’t playing the classical music that I was used to. Then I tried to just treat it like a bass, then trying to pick out a few chords. The motto being, “Nothing too fancy.” I wanted to get to a point where I could play and sing at the same time. That’s when I was first starting to write songs, so the skills developed together. 

I can notice that! I notice mainly because I play banjo and songwrite on banjo, and it’s such a different beast than writing on piano or guitar. There are so many similarities in the way you’re writing and backing yourself up. Especially in the way you’re comping on harp, it reminds me so much of banjo rolls — how John Hartford or Ashley Campbell or Béla Fleck, banjoists that might have more “composed” songs, might play. Do you see those similarities? 

That’s a very kind comparison! That’s the kind of music I listen to, but it’s funny because I don’t feel like I really have any harp inspirations to my playing — which is not to say I’m not inspired by great harpists, because of course I am, but that’s not really what influences me when I’m writing songs and figuring out how the harp is going to fit into the songwriting. Someone like Béla Fleck especially, I listen to his playing a lot and those are the types of textures and rhythms that I’m hearing when I’m writing on harp. Rather than something that actually contains a harp. [Laughs]

For the remainder of the year, our Shout & Shine series will be devoted to Black artists and part of that is in response to the current rebellion against racial injustice and police brutality — and also due to the heightened awareness of how Black voices and forebears in country and roots music have been erased for so long. Do you worry about this sudden uptick in enthusiasm and awareness resulting in more tokenization of Black artists? And I have to add a quick aside, because it is intrinsically tokenizing for me to ask that question, right? It’s a hard thing to unpack, so I’d love to hear your perspective on it. 

I really appreciate that and I appreciate you acknowledging that it’s difficult to talk about. Even assuming that it’s OK to have the conversation between a white person or a white journalist or a white audience or a white editor — whomever is doing the asking — and a Black artist is one of the problems. That being said, I’m happy to have it right now because I knew we were going to come into this conversation and talk about a whole bunch of topics. I’m happy to give my two cents: I think if non-Black listeners and fans and enthusiasts of the genre are thinking about [these issues], just know that those of us who deal with this day in and day out are going to be exhausted and aren’t going to be the best people to always go to. That’s a great place to start, knowing it’s so much heavier. It’s not intellectual, for us. It’s a lived reality. 

As far as tokenization goes, I do worry about it and I worry about it because I remember when I was in high school — I went to a really competitive boarding school — college acceptance letters were coming out and everyone was on edge. This is a time when we had Honesty Box on Facebook, where you could send an anonymous message — which, in retrospect, what a horrible way to let people bully each other. I remember getting a message that just said, “Affirmative Action” after I got into Stanford. It was so hurtful to me. Intellectually I knew that Affirmative Action is a wonderful program and it helps deserving people get into schools they deserve to get into. (I also had excellent grades and, you know, I’m smart as shit. So go away!) But it was hurtful to think that my peers didn’t see that in me and what they saw was my skin color. 

That’s such a trite way of putting it, but I think a lot of people maybe subconsciously think about Black artists in Americana, in spaces where Black people are not the standard, as “diversity hires.” They may even be for that. Like, “It’s great that we have these diverse perspectives!” They don’t realize that we are a fundamental part of these spaces and we deserve to be here. Just as much as everybody else. We have roots in these geographical regions and these genres that go just as deep as white artists. We shouldn’t have to rattle off our qualifications. 

There have been so many movements of Black artists who didn’t want to be called “Black artists” for this reason. They didn’t want to be put on the “Black Feminists” bookshelf and be marginalized [further] in that way. I definitely identify with that. I’m Black and I’m proud, in a very 1970s way, so I am proud to have the label of a “Black Americana artist.” I think my Blackness informs my work just as much as my hometown, my feminism, etc. 

I do worry about the swingback of resentment! That anonymous message of, “OK, when are we going to be done giving these people a hand?” Meanwhile, [Black folks] have been working twice as much for all of our careers. If anyone was wondering, we’re not going to stop asking for the door to be opened and we’re not going to stop kicking the door down just because people get tired of the trends. If people are about to get sick of it, well… you can leave. [Laughs] 

Who would you like to see on Shout & Shine? And maybe, beyond that, who are some artists or creators right now that you’re gaining inspiration, or joy, or energy from right now?

Lately I have been listening to mostly rock and I think it has changed how I think about my folk writing, so if I could be allowed to go a little bit outside of the genre…

I have been listening to The Beths a lot. They have a great new album out, [Jump Rope Gazers], and the lyrics are fantastic and their melodies are so fantastic, I’m probably going to try to cover one of their songs. I love catchy melodies — like, I love Carly Rae Jepsen, I listen to her constantly. 

A former bandmate opened my ears to new types, new ways of being a singer/songwriter. I don’t know if you know Bartees Strange but he used to play guitar for me. He does a really good combo of like, doing a really great solo show and he’ll do a full post-punk, indie-rock show. He and all of his collaborators are great. He just invited me and another New York artist, Oceanator, onto a live stream — she’s fantastic. She also plays solo and with a full rock band. Those are New York homies I listen to a ton. 

I love Sunny War’s playing. She’s a friend and she’s the best. Her live shows are the most mesmerizing thing ever. I’ve been loving listening to her as well. 

(Editor’s note: Tune in on August 5, 2020 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for Lizzie No’s debut performance for Shout & Shine. On BGS, our YouTube channel, and/or Facebook.)

All photos: Gabriel Barreto

Alfi, “Farewell to Trion”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Irish music as a genre tends to conjure images of dozens of step dancers clopping on stage in unison with curls bouncing, or dashing jigs and reels perfect for a night of revelry, or moody ballads with a thousand verses, or drunken sing-alongs with choruses full of nonsense words. A layperson might assume that Irish music doesn’t necessitate nuance beyond perhaps the melodramatic story songs, but that assumption does an incredible disservice to the depth and breadth of emotion and detail that runs through Ireland’s vernacular music.

Alfi, a string band equally comfortable with Irish traditional material and American old-time, demonstrate the stunning, understated beauty of this nuance on their rendering of “Farewell to Trion,” an old-time tune from the U.S. side of the pond. The tempo is relaxed, the reharmonizations are modern, yet timeless, and the form rolls by a handful of times without ever becoming stale or boring — a remarkable feat. Beneath the surface of banjo (Ryan McAuley) and whistle (Fiachra Meek), artfully teasing the melody at its edges, are the hands of Alannah Thornburgh on harp, not only plucking along with the tune, but comping as deftly and expertly as any firecracker Irish rhythm guitarist, morphing the standard chord progression at her will and whimsy. “Farewell to Trion” is worth a second and third listen if only to train our ears and brain to focus in on the mind-blowing magic happening at the fingertips of Thornburgh’s left hand. Here, it’s pretty clear to see that there’s much more to Irish music than just pomp, showmanship, drinking songs, and curly wigs. And there’s beauty to love in all of the above.